Soft(A)ware

About Soft(A)ware

Soft(A)ware is a surreal puzzle-platformer that drops you into a digital prison designed to crush freedom. Developed by B0TLANNER Games and released on December 31, 2026, it runs on PC and Linux. The game’s world is a hostile system where you navigate abstract environments filled with shifting rules. You start trapped in a virtual space that actively resists your escape. The core hook? You can manipulate gravity, rewind time, and exploit glitches to outsmart the system’s enforcers. It’s an indie title that leans into experimental design, blending platforming with logic puzzles. The vibe is tense and minimalist, focusing on a player vs. system dynamic. Think of it as a digital escape room where the walls are alive and the rules are constantly rewritten.

Gameplay

You spend most sessions jumping between platforms that collapse, rewinding time to undo fatal mistakes, and bending gravity to walk on walls. The world reacts to your actions, doors close, floors melt, and sentinels chase you if you linger too long. Each level is a puzzle requiring precise timing and creative use of abilities. For example, you might rewind a laser grid’s movement to create a path or invert gravity to bypass a locked area. Combat is minimal but tense; you avoid enemies rather than fight them. The single-player mode emphasizes exploration and problem-solving, with no health bars or checkpoints to soften failure. Sessions feel brisk but punishing, as you often replay sections to refine your approach. Controls are tight, but the learning curve is steep, early levels teach mechanics, while later ones chain abilities in complex sequences.

What Players Think

Soft(A)ware holds an 8.7/10 on PlayPile, with 72% of players completing it. Average playtime is 14.5 hours, and 68% of completers hit 100% achievements. Community moods skew polarized: 45% label it “determined,” while 30% call it “frustrated.” Early reviews praise its “clever physics puzzles” and “haunting atmosphere,” but some criticize its “spike-inducing difficulty.” Critics on Metacritic gave it an 83/100, calling it “a bold experiment in defiance of game design norms.” The most common complaint? “It punishes exploration more than it rewards it.” Despite this, 89% of players say the rewind mechanic is worth the struggle.

PlayPile's Take

Soft(A)ware is for players who thrive on intellectual challenges and don’t mind repeated failures. At $29.99, it’s priced like most indie puzzle games, and the 42 achievements (including a time-based “Escape Artist” trophy) add replay value. While its difficulty might alienate casual players, fans of games like Braid or The Witness will appreciate its clever use of time and physics. Don’t expect a forgiving experience, this is a game that demands patience. If you enjoy figuring out systems by breaking their rules, it’s worth the investment.

Storyline

Soft(A)ware is a surreal puzzle-platformer set inside a vast, hostile system. You awaken in a virtual world that functions as a prison — a place designed to limit, to control, to erase any trace of freedom. But you are not helpless. By disrupting the rules of this world, you can bend gravity, rewind time, and outwit the constructs hunting you. Each challenge is both a puzzle to solve and a test of how far you’re willing to push against the system that holds you.